Humans
by Shinyzenith
Summary: Firenze's thoughts on humans, as he follows three students in the forest.


**Humans**

Humans are inferior. Firenze pondered that sentence as he followed the students through the forest, keeping just out of sight. It had been the closing sentence to Bane's rant. Firenze usually had respect for his seniors, but Bane was an exception. The elders seemed to tolerate his curiosity toward humans, but Bane, who was only slightly older than Firenze, didn't. He found it despicable. He was convinced that centaurs were superior in every way to humans.

They often got into debates about that. Bane liked to prove his point by comparing centaurs to the Hogwarts groundkeeper, Hagrid. While Firenze admitted that he didn't seem very intelligent, he was a friendly character. He wasn't even sure that the man was an actual human. He seemed to fit the description he had gotten of giants quite well, except he was too small, but still larger than the average human. Firenze had seen the students at the school, and was certain that they didn't all grow that large.

In fact, he had met one other human, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. He was different from other humans, according to his seniors. Even Bane, who liked humans less than any other centaur, had respect for the old man. And Firenze had to admit that he deserved the respect. He was wise, that was the only term he had for it. He normally reserved that word for the elders, but as he understood it, Dumbledore was an elder of the humans. He had learned to keep those type of thoughts to himself. Especially when Bane was around.

Bane was another young centaur, though several years his senior. Bane didn't like Firenze, he abhorred his pro-human drivel, as he liked to call it. He said Firenze had no respect for their culture, but Firenze definitely did. He just wasn't as narrow-minded as to think centaurs were superior to humans in every way possible. He certainly didn't think humans were better either, just different. And the strangest thing he knew about them was 'coincidence'. Centaurs didn't talk about coincidence, they believed everything happened for a reason.

And how could he ignore the humans, as Bane told him, when all the premonitions he saw pointed to large changes in the human world. Firenze thought it interesting, and he wouldn't let himself be stopped from finding out more about wizards. This is the reason that he had started to follow the students he had seen entering the forest. He was aware they normally weren't allowed in the forest, their school said it was too dangerous But they looked to be adults, or close to adults, so Firenze expected that they could take care of themselves. He didn't think intermingling with humans was a good idea at that time.

Firenze was shaken out of his ponderings as he noticed that he had lost sight of the humans. Not too worried, he quickly sped up. He knew the forest, and not a minute after losing them, he had found them again. They seemed to have stopped in a clearing, in fact, it was the same one he had found them in at first. It was quite close to the forest's edge, and Firenze assumed they were leaving now. He had followed them for about an hour, watching them pick up various plants and even a few feathers at some point. The kind they mixed in their 'potions', he thought.

Stepping closer, Firenze looked at the group. They were three boys, from the house with the colours red and gold, Gryffindor. He had been told that those students came out in the forest most often. They were apparently the foolish ones. The brave ones. Firenze admired bravery. He himself wasn't brave enough to stand up to Bane when he berated him for saying something positive about humans. He was afraid of being excluded from the others. He didn't want that.

As he came to a stop, he listened to what they were saying.

"Tell me again why we didn't bring Peter?"

"You saw him when I proposed going into the forest, Padfoot. He went all white. We would've been in here for hours had we brought him. Besides, we needed a distraction anyway, you know he's good at those."

"Why was he so scared anyway? We come here once a month, and he's never been afraid then," Sirius asked.

"He's obviously not scared because he has a werewolf with him then. But I agree that he could use some more backbone. I sometimes wonder how he got into Gryffindor."

"That doesn't make sense, he should be afraid _because_ he has a werewolf with him," Remus argued.

"You know, you're not all that scary Moony."

Remus looked like he wanted to argue, but didn't say anything.

"Anyway," James said, "we should get going. We didn't encounter a single centaur the whole time, and I'd like to keep it that way. I don't think they've forgotten our last visit just yet."

Sirius winced at this, and Remus looked suspicious. "What visit?"

James looked away quickly. "Ah, nothing Moony, but let's go."

Remus eyed him for a moment longer, but then sighed exasperatedly. "Fine, let's go. I don't think Wormtail could distract both Filch and McGonagall for much longer anyway."

Firenze watched as they hurried out of the forest. Not a minute later Bane walked into the clearing.

"I knew you'd be here. Close to the humans," he said disapprovingly. "Come. The elders want to see you. They think you've been a bit _too _interested in humans."

Bane obviously took pleasure in this. Firenze sighed but followed the other as he walked back deeper into the forest.


End file.
